Crochet Necklace

I have this yarn, Paton's Lacette, which is discontinued. I think I know why... when I first bought the one small skein that I have from Michael's several years ago, I thought I would never use it. I tried to pull out the beginning strand, and it was so utterly entangled, I figured it was beyond repair. And anyone that knows me well knows that I have and will spend hours un-knotting yarn. This one is a sorta shaggy mohair blend, so even when the actual yarn isn't knotted, the fuzz balls up and sticks to itself. Anyway, I was really irritated because it is so soft and has a nice sheen. By some miracle, I managed to sort out the tangles and make it workable.

It has two little buttons for a closure. I was thinking about beading it, but I kind of like it plain. I haven't blocked it yet, but I think I'd better. It's super soft and not at all itchy.

Card for Ilka

Well, today was my first Monday in the pharmacy without Ilka and to be honest, it was not a good day. The morning was busy, taking breaks in the afternoon put even more pressure on the two techs not on break, and the evening just isn't the same without Ilka's presence. (She helped me keep my sanity after Kristen leaves.) Instead of having two of us proficient at doing data entry, now it's just me. On top of that, I have to place the order while doing drop-off and answering everyone's questions about "where is this drug?", "this patient said that the price should be different," "can you call this doctor/insurance/patient?". (It really shows my "controlling" side when I can't delegate tasks to others because I'm convinced it will only waste more time.) Scott and I were watching the Colbert Report not long ago and there was Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows, speaking about how multi-tasking is a bad thing and that people who think they're good at it are actually bad at it. All I know is, I miss my boo already. So, I made her a card.

I cut the letters in SCAL and the rest with my new favorite cartridge - Create a Critter. The glitter glue really isn't as sloppy as it looks in the picture. That's just the lighting. I'm sure my photo-guru Danh could school me in that.

A Boot for SCAL

Occasionally I get on a kick where I just want to make something for the sake of making it. I have absolutely no use for a Victorian-style paper boot... but I thought it was cute and I wanted to cut it. So I opened up Photoshop and turned a picture of some boots into more simple shapes and imported the bitmap into Inkscape where I turned it into a vector file to use in SCAL. (Easier said than done... it took over an hour before I was satisfied with the vector file.) Then I was ready to cut. At this point I discovered that my Cricut will not use the 12x6 cutting mats... it rotated all over the place in the machine. Frustrating, but eventually I got the thing cut and finished.

Apparently Blogger doesn't like SVG files, so here's what I used saved as a PNG.

Momma Owl for Sandra

I love making small projects like amigurumi. This one is from the book Amigurumi World: Seriously Cute Crochet by Ana Paula Rimoli. I used a J hook and Lion Brand's Vanna's Choice yarn in Honey, Beige and Terra Cotta. I'd never used Vanna's Choice before but I've decided it's nice and soft for acrylic yarn and pretty ideal for amigurumi. I used polyester fiberfill and safety eyes with an extra backing in front, I thought it looked better that way.

The above picture was taken by Scott's iPhone and the colors are a little muted. The picture on the right features my friend Ilka who just moved to Philadelphia yesterday. The colors are more accurate in that picture.






I made this cute little owl for a lady I work with, Sandra. She's due at the end of the month and is expecting a boy who she will name Morel. She lets me touch her belly when he's kicking. It's so weird. She loved the owl and said it matches the baby's room!

Past Crochet Projects

Death Metal Pharmacy Scarf for Jason






 




Grapefruit Pouch for Avalon

Scarf for Avalon











Companion Cube from Portal for Scott